The snow fell wet and heavy Friday. It fell heavier at times, but it was steady for most of the day.

As the white stuff piled up around Racine County, the people responsible for keeping the streets and sidewalks clean throughout watched their reserves of street salt dwindle and the cost of snow removal rise.

In Racine, Public Works Department officials said the city could go over budget slightly, by roughly $10,000, to cover overtime. But that’s a worst-case scenario, according to Tom Eeg, the city’s assistant public works commissioner.

Officials in the department responsible for keeping the city streets clear, budget more than $450,000 for the snow removal season — roughly $200,000 for supplies, including road salt; and $260,000 for salaries for the employees who help clean the streets when it snows.

Ape Cave Sno-Park (elevation 1,900 feet) -- Starting this year, a Sno-Park permit is required at the Trail of Two Forests parking lot on Road 8303, from which it's about a quarter-mile walk to Ape Cave. No snowmobiles allowed.

For updated information, call (360) 449-7800.

Wind River Highway

Lone Butte Sno-Park (elevation 3,140 feet) -- 29 inches, with 24 of it new and more expected.

The new EU treaty might not be ratified because "sensitive" countries such as Britain will pick over the detail of a text that many consider is too "close" to the rejected Constitution, the man in charge of the process has said.

Slovenia, which takes up the EU's rotating presidency on New Year's Day, is preparing itself for a torrid six months as most member states attempt to push the treaty through national parliaments before the summer.

Janez Jansa, Slovenia's prime minister, told The Daily Telegraph that a smooth ratification could not be taken for granted. "We cannot exclude the possibility that something will go wrong," he said.

The "sensitive cases" - Britain, France, the Netherlands and Ireland, which is required by its constitution to hold a referendum - are all expected to try to rush through ratification by the end of June 2008.

Mr Jansa said that after French and Dutch voters rejected the constitution in 2005, Europe's elites were using the parliamentary route rather than risky popular votes to ratify the accord.

The frozen carcass of a 37,000-year-old baby mammoth unearthed this summer in Siberia arrived in Japan on Saturday for tests that researchers hope will shed new light on the internal structure of the ancient beasts, an official said.

The 4-foot gray-and-brown carcass arrived at Tokyo International Airport on Saturday afternoon, said Mitsuyoshi Uno, an official with the joint Russo-Japanese mammoth-study project that is overseeing the research.

Discovered in May by a reindeer herder in northern Siberia's remote Yamal-Nenets region, the frozen mammoth's trunk and eyes are virtually intact and it even has some fur, but its tail and ear were apparently bitten off, Russian officials said.

The article excerpted below is written so as not to threaten Warmists but the great gaps in knowledge that it notes show how shaky the assumptions fed into climate "models" have to be

So far, scientists have no reliable way to measure all these fluctuating carbon emissions. Temperature predictions based on future CO2 levels, therefore, could overestimate the risk of greenhouse warming -- or dangerously understate it. "A quarter of all the CO2 that is emitted is going somewhere, and we don't know where," said David Crisp at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he is senior scientist for the $270 million Orbiting Carbon Observatory, set for launch next December. "That raises a lot of red flags."

Moreover, as governments try to prevent climate change through emissions trading -- where buying and selling emissions rights is expected to top $70 billion by the end of next year -- regulators must track CO2 no matter where it comes from or where it goes, to verify transactions.

To pinpoint the places where the planet naturally absorbs CO2 emissions, researchers have turned North America into a test lab. No other region is so thoroughly monitored; nor does any other area emit as much carbon dioxide -- about 27% of the world's annual total.

The U.S., Mexico and Canada together release about 2 billion tons of carbon as CO2 into the air every year -- 85% from the U.S. alone -- but only about a third of it typically is absorbed by so-called carbon sinks, such as new forests, grasslands, crops and soil. The rest is either in the air or unaccounted for. That is according to a new study of 28,000 measurements collected every week from 2000 through 2006 and analyzed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's online CarbonTracker system.

The CarbonTracker offers a portrait of the continent in carbon dioxide, locating where greenhouse-gas upwellings are strongest and where new plant growth and soil most readily remove it from the air. Greenhouse-gas emissions were highest in the Midwest, which released more CO2 than any country except Russia, China, India, and the U.S. as a whole. By the same token, CO2 was absorbed mostly east of the Rocky Mountains and in northern Canada, where vast boreal forests hold twice as much carbon as tropical woodlands.

These detailed calculations reveal a countryside where these natural carbon-storage zones are failing, the NOAA researchers determined. The higher temperatures that result can, through more frequent wildfires and prolonged droughts, further interrupt ancient cycles of carbon storage, spilling even more carbon into the air....

An unusually severe U.S. drought in 2002, the NOAA researchers discovered, left an extra 360 million tons of carbon in the atmosphere -- an amount equal to the annual emissions of 200 million cars -- by stunting plant growth that normally might have absorbed the gas. "We lost half our natural sink," said NOAA geochemist John Miller. In Europe, a severe drought in 2003 left more than 500 million tons of carbon in the air.

In turn, the dry weather from higher temperatures also has made wildfires in the western U.S. more frequent, longer-burning and harder to extinguish. Large-scale fires in western and southeastern states can release as much carbon dioxide in a few weeks as motor-vehicle traffic there does in a year, University of Colorado researchers reported this past October in Carbon Balance and Management.

In a single week this fall, they reported, wildfires in Southern California released 7.9 million metric tons of CO2 -- equal to 25% of the monthly fumes from every car, truck, factory and power plant in the state.

Bush continues to fight the good fight! DT readers may recall my post from last week, indicating that Bush might not be wild about signing the omnibus bill... And voila, one week later: out comes the veto pen again, just when the Dems thought they had sneaked another fast one past the President.

The President has a very valid reason, as you will see from his "Memorandum of Disapproval" linked above, and also from Gateway Pundit's excellent post below. This is what happens when the Dems play chicken with the military, is fast and loose with the American people, and tries to sneak in "poison pills" to an otherwise very important bill.

Now let's see the Dems fight a new streamlined bill for our troops, now that the news of their glaring omission/betrayal is out, and especially in light of world tensions now that Bhutto has been assassinated--denying the troops the funding they need now--no strings attached--would IMO be tantamount to political suicide for the party's fall fortunes:

The White House believes the bill is "A Danger to Iraq's Progress"...Obviously, the White House is very concerned about Section 1083 because the provisions included risk imposing financially devastating hardship on Iraq that will unacceptably interfere with the political and economic progress.

I've seen some criticisms of this even from bloggers I respect. But personally I like a guy who does the right thing, even if it goes against the grain or comes at a not particularly opportune moment with primaries coming up next week. Leaders don't get to pick when mistakes happen; but they do need to correct them. I'm standing behind the President on this one.

Friday, December 28, 2007

Mexican troops disarmed the entire police force of a town near the U.S. border today after a failed attempt to kill the police chief raised suspicions it was infiltrated by drug traffickers.

Troops and police from the state of Baja California took over the beach resort town of Rosarito, just south of the sprawling border city of Tijuana, near San Diego, Calif. [CLICK TO ENLARGE MAP.]

The force's 200 guns will be checked to see if any were used in the mid-December attack on Rosarito's chief of police in which one of his bodyguards died."We recognize that the enemy is inside our house and for this reason we are purging the ranks," Baja California state police chief Daniel de la Rosa told reporters.

"We need to have confidence in our police."

Since taking office in December 2006, Mexican President Felipe Calderon has sent some 25,000 troops to bring order to areas where drug gangs are strong, such as along the U.S.-Mexico border and in the western state of Michoacan.Despite these actions, about 2,500 people have died so far this year in turf wars among different drug gangs.

THIS IS ANOTHER REASON WE NEED A FENCE.

ANYONE WHO OPPOSES THE FENCE HAS MORE CONFIDENCE IN THE MEXICAN POLICE THAN MEXICO DOES!

China’s currency rose steeply against the dollar this week, feeding speculation that Chinese authorities, yielding to international pressure and economic realities at home, were allowing their currency to appreciate more rapidly.

The currency, known as the yuan or renminbi, rose 0.9 percent this week — faster than over any week since China stopped pegging it to the dollar on July 21, 2005. Thursday, the yuan rose 0.37 percent, the largest one-day increase since the peg ended. On Friday, it rose 0.18 percent, to close at 7.3041 to the dollar in Shanghai trading.

Conflicting reports about what caused the death of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto are fueling questions about the circumstances of her assassination.

Benazir Bhutto died Thursday after a suicide bombing at a political rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Bhutto's political party disputed official versions of the incident, accusing the government of lying. Video footage of Thursday's attack on Bhutto contains a murky shot of a hand firing a pistol three times, but the Pakistani government said Bhutto -- who was standing through her vehicle's sunroof -- was not hit.

There is a relatively small flare from the gun - one in fact is all I could make out.

There is almost no recoil after the shots are fired.

Therefore, I think the gun was a small caliber.Not the caliber of someone looking to make a certain kill.

At the distance the shooter was from Bhutto - half a car length - he should have been able to hit her. I feel that an experienced shooter shooting with his own gun would have hit his target from the range depicted in the video.

There are conflicting reports about whether he did; officially - he did not. (And by the way, we don't need another autopsy to find out if she was hit: the clothing Bhutto was wearing at the time she died would tell the story. Her family could give it to a international team AT ONCE, and clear this up.)

So, why did he miss Bhutto? Was he a decoy? OR...

PERHAPS HE WASN'T AIMING AT BHUTTO?

PERHAPS THE SHOOTER'S TARGET WAS NOT BHUTTO?

PERHAPS THE SHOOTER'S TARGET WAS THE BOMBER?

PERHAPS THE SHOOTER WAS PART OF BHUTTO'S SECURITY?

I'd like to see a diagram depicting where the bomber was in relation to the car, the shooter and to Bhutto. From other, videos it appears to me the bomb was not directly behind her car. Was the bomber next to the shooter - and therefore obviously his accomplice, or in front of the shooter?

Why didn't the bomb destroy Bhutto's car - was it the armor which protected it?

The choice of Keith Olbermann as a commentator for NBC Sports is ill-conceived at best. Olbermann's virulent liberal commentary on MSNBC has received plenty of attention in so-called "red states", which comprise key markets for NFL football. Rest assured that, in general, these markets do not appreciate Olbermann's sentiments.

Just days ago, Olbermann received a runners-up award for Media Research Center's Worst Reporting for 2007, stating: "Al Qaeda really hurt us, but not as much as Rupert Murdoch has hurt us, particularly in the case of Fox News. Fox News is worse than Al Qaeda - worse for our society. It's as dangerous as the Ku Klux Klan ever was."

United Airlines, hit hard by weekend storms in the Midwest, canceled dozens more flights Thursday as the second storm since Christmas threatened to pile 20 inches of new snow on Colorado.

Up to 8 inches of new snow were expected in Denver, which set a record for its snowiest Christmas with the nearly 8 inches that fell Tuesday.

United canceled 168 flights nationwide Thursday mostly because of the weather in Denver, its second-largest hub, to help prevent planes from being stranded there. That's about 5 percent of the airline's daily schedule.

"There will be impacts in other parts of the system and we're doing our best to accommodate everyone," United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said.

"How does the Republican frontrunner in Iowa further ingratiate himself with the locals with just a week to go before the first votes are cast in the 2008 presidential election? He gets a dog called Dude and goes out shooting with his buddies, of course. It doesn't matter that it's freezing cold and there's nobody to greet with a big Arkansas howdy. It's about creating that experienced outdoors man look, and reminding all those Iowan evangelicals how much you enjoy their kind of fun. And getting yourself photographed with a gun can only help shore up those all-important Second Amendment credentials.

Luckily for Mike Huckabee, and anyone else within call, there was no sign of Vice-President Dick Cheney, who famously (and almost fatally) sprayed his 78-year-old pal Harry Whittington with birdshot during a similar hunting trip in Texas in February last year. Early in the campaign, Mr Romney played loose with the truth when he claimed to be a "lifelong hunter". He later had to admit he owned neither a gun nor a hunting licence. To many, it was a startling oversight for someone whose presidential campaign is heavily dependent on early success in states such as Iowa and New Hampshire, where recreational shooting is a way of life."

The usual Leftist attempt to silence opposition rather than debate it:

"Immigrant-rights groups are criticizing the organizers of an upcoming radio event that will promote a crackdown on illegal immigration. The groups accuse the Federation for American Immigration Reform of endorsing bigotry and racism. FAIR is sponsoring a broadcast marathon for Thursday and Friday in a downtown Des Moines hotel. The event is expected to attract 22 radio talk show hosts from across the country to discuss immigration.

``We don't agree with their views that are demonizing immigrants, and we don't appreciate their coming to Iowa telling us what we should think about immigrants,'' said Alicia Claypool, chairwoman of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission.

Critics have said FAIR's hard anti-immigrant line has discouraged a fair debate.

The Center for New Community, a Chicago-based immigrant rights advocacy group, disagrees with FAIR's purpose and encourages the hotel to cancel the event....

Stein accused critics of the planned broadcasts of trying to obstruct free speech ``and people's right to be heard on public policy issues.''

After its bitter defeat in Iraq, it is obvious that Al Qaeda's new goal is to incite as much strife in Pakistan as possible, and murdering the former Prime Minister may be as incendiary as was the killing of Franz Ferdinand (murdered by an Islamist Serb) in sparking 'The Great War':

A spokesperson for the al-Qaeda terrorist network has claimed responsibility for the death on Thursday of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

“We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat [the] mujahadeen,” Al-Qaeda’s commander and main spokesperson Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid told Adnkronos International (AKI) in a phone call from an unknown location, speaking in faltering English. Al-Yazid is the main al-Qaeda commander in Afghanistan.

It is believed that the decision to kill Bhutto, who is the leader of the opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP), was made by al-Qaeda No. 2, the Egyptian doctor, Ayman al-Zawahiri in October.

Death squads were allegedly constituted for the mission and ultimately one cell comprising a defunct Lashkar-i-Jhangvi’s Punjabi volunteer succeeded in killing Bhutto.

Bhutto had just addressed a pre-election rally on Thursday in the garrison town of Rawalpindi when the bomb went off.

Sowing the seeds of Civil War in Pakistan is exactly what AQ attempted to do when it murdered hundreds of fellow Muslims who committed the sin of praying at the Shiite Mosque in Samarra: AQ was less concerned with innocent Muslims it murdered than it was with doing whatever was necessary to maximize the chances of chaos and Civil War. Fortunately the surge has defeated them there, but Al Qaeda is still a dangerous enemy elsewhere. And they obviously are trying the same strategy in Pakistan, although it is worth mentioning that the bombing also helps the pro-Taliban opposition leader Nawaz Sharif enormously in his war against Musharraf (indeed, it would not surprise me if Sharif were involved somehow in the plot):

Bhutto’s death also makes former prime minister Nawaz Sharif Pakistan’s top opposition figure. Sharif has attempted to appeal to Islamic militants, arguing that Pakistan needs to pare down its cooperation with the United States. Sharif has already capitalized on Bhutto’s death, visiting the hospital where she was declared dead, blasting Musharraf for providing Bhutto with insufficient security, and calling for a reunification of Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party and his own Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

Here is the bottom line now: Under no circumstances can we abandon Musharraf the way Jimmy Carter abandoned the Shah of Iran when the going got tough (and that worked out real well, didn't it...). Of course, this is exactly what Al Qaeda is counting on, but withdraw our support now (unless we have already found another pro-American replacement...) would be to put scores of nukes directly into the hands of sworn enemies who have vowed to bring mass murder to as many American, European, and Israeli "Infidels" as possible. At that point a US military option against Pakistan cannot be overlooked. And at that point protecting our borders takes on a whole new ominous meaning.

If the Taliban and/or Al Qaeda are able to topple Musharraf, the chances of nuclear war will be greater than at any point since the Cuban Missile Crisis. So, it does beg the question: with the stakes as high as they are for the entire world, can the United States really afford to elect some rank amateur as President? God help us if we do.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is likely to have far-reaching repercussions which cannot even be imagined right now. But the seeming rush of two Republican candidates (and Barack Obama) to try and hang the blame for the assassination of Bhutto on US policy is not merely a lie born of cheap opportunism; it is a lie that is damaging to our country's interests and reputation across the world:

Do you not think that these irresponsible statements are bouncing around every Islamist website on the planet? And this is Presidential???

All three of these items--coming after such a momentous and monumental tragedy--are illustrations of why we so desparately need the leadership of serious, sober people for these serious, sobering times. And it is well past high time that certain misguided Americans wake the hell up and drop their love affair with the sleazy and clueless Huckabee and/or the vapid Mr. Paul, and to get behind a Republican with experience, a sober understanding of world events, and the strength and will to pro-actively protect this country from the very Islamists who killed Ms. Bhutto today.

GENEVA - THE World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed a single case of human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 bird flu virus in a family in Pakistan but said there was no apparent risk of it spreading wider.

A statement from the UN agency on Thursday said tests in its special laboratories in Cairo and London had established the 'human infection' through presence of the virus 'collected from one case in an affected family'.

But it said a WHO team invited to Pakistan to look into an outbreak involving up to nine people, from late October to Dec 6 had found no evidence of sustained or community human-to-human transmission.

New Bin Laden Tape ImminentThreatsWatch.Org -1 hour agoA new video featuring Usama bin Laden called “The Way to Foil the Conspiracies” is set to hit the Internet, according to a statement posted on several ...

Bin Laden message on Iraq expected: monitorAFP -16 minutes agoThe 56-minute tape by the hunted militant is addressed to Iraq and an extremist organization based there, the Islamic State of Iraq, said the US-based SITE ...

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is a severe, and potentially crippling,blow to international hopes that Pakistan might emerge into a state ofstability.

The risks of Pakistan imploding have once again increased.

It is a further setback for the US "war on terror",which has as part of its strategy in the region the restoration of democracy inPakistan to offer an alternative path, away from militancy and extremism.

The strategy is very much at risk.

Benazir Bhutto's death came less than two weeks before electionsscheduled for 8 January.

Her decision to carry on with campaigning despite a doublesuicide bomb attack on her convoy immediately after her return to Pakistan on 18October was undoubtedly brave.

However, it underestimated the determination of those out to kill her.

She herself blamed Islamic extremists for the first attack.

The ability of such militants to wreak havoc with their ruthlesstactics is once again demonstrated.

Up to thispoint, planning for a more stable nation was more or less on target.

President Pervez Musharraf had allowed both BenazirBhutto and another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif to return, had steppeddown as head of the army and had been re-packaged as a civilian president.

He had set a date for parliamentary elections andhad lifted the state of emergency.

The hope was that politics would be resumed and that the confrontationbetween the army and Islamic militants would gradually be wound down.

An end to such conflict is vital not only for thefuture stability of Pakistan but for the future of Afghanistan. It is fromPakistan that the Taleban are able to conduct their war against the Afghangovernment and its Nato supporters.

If President Musharraf and the Pakistan army decidethat such an approach is no longer possible, they might abandon it and the armymight impose military rule, as has happened so often before in Pakistan'snational life.

Not that Ms Bhutto was seen as the panacea for Pakistan's woes. When inoffice she was regarded by some as a domineering and at times a divisive figure.

But she did offer charismatic leadership at this crucial stage and shehad the potential to provide Pakistan with the means of changing its ways.

Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria-Este (December 18, 1863 – June 28, 1914)was an Archduke of Austria, Prince Imperial of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungaryand Bohemia, and from 1896 until his death, heir presumptive to theAustro-Hungarian throne. His assassination in Sarajevo precipitated the Austriandeclaration of war. This caused countries allied with Austria-Hungary (theCentral Powers) and countries allied with Serbia (the Entente Powers) to declarewar on each other, starting World War I.

Some think Benazir Bhutto was likely the next leader of Pakistan. She had been elected Prime Minister twice previously. She enjoyed enormous good will in Pakistan and, as a female leader, shone as a beacon of hope for change in the Muslim world.

Will her assassination be the fault line of the Islamic world and beyond?

Pakistan Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has died after a suicide attack at a political rally. She was undergoing emergency surgery at a nearby hospital for a suspected neck injury, Sky News sources say.

It was believed to be a suicide attack

The explosion went off just after Ms Bhutto left the rally in Rawalpindi, minutes after her speech to thousands of people.

At least 15 people died in the attack in the heart of Pakistan'smilitary and parliamentary district.

It is the first major attack since President General PervezMusharraf lifted emergency rule two weeks ago.

Sky News correspondent Alex Crawford said from Pakistan thecountry's upcoming January elections would "most likey be postponed orcancelled" because of the attack.

UPDATE (RELIAPUNDIT):

ACCORDING TO SKY NEWS LIVE SHE WAS SHOT A FEW TIMES IN HER BODY AND NECK AS SHE GOT INTO HER CAR AND THEN THE ASSASSIN BLEW HIMSELF UP.

SHE DIED FROM TWO GUNSHOTS WOUNDS - ONE IN HER CHEST AND ONE IN HER NECK.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw body parts and flesh scattered at the back gate of the Liaqat Bagh park in Rawalpindi where Bhutto had spoken. He counted about 20 bodies, including police, and could see many other wounded.

Farahtullah Babar, the spokesman for Bhutto's party, said her vehicle was about 50 yards away from blast which came as she was leaving the rally.

The above title is a quote from someone who has just been subjected to a compulsory course on "sexual and other illegal workplace harassment". The title summarizes what she learned from the course. An excerpt:

"The message the employee is supposed to carry away is clear: Anyone who complains about any kind of inappropriate harassment or discrimination in the workplace must be treated with kid gloves (even if the complaint is silly), unless the complainant is a white guy concerned about "reverse" discrimination, in which case he's "really out of line" and his conduct is "really offensive."

It occurred to me that this training course is itself a rather blatant form of racial and sexual harassment. Employees taking the course are not so subtly being told, "Do not dream of complaining about race or sex discrimination if you are white or male. Your employer will consider you to be 'really out of line' and your conduct 'really offensive.' This may have an career shortening effect."

Go here to read it all. Some background and further comments here and here

The abstract of the paper, authored by doctoral candidate Tal Nitzan, notes that the paper shows that "the lack of organized military rape is an alternate way of realizing [particular] political goals."

The next sentence delineates the particular goals that are realized in this manner: "In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it can be seen that the lack of military rape merely strengthens the ethnic boundaries and clarifies the inter-ethnic differences - just as organized military rape would have done."

The paper further theorizes that Arab women in Judea and Samaria are not raped by IDF soldiers because the women are de-humanized in the soldiers' eyes.

Makor Rishon editor Amnon Lord, who first publicized the story, wrote that not only did researcher Nitzan not consider Jewish tradition as an explanation, but neither did she "raise the possibility that her initial assumption - namely, that the situation in Judea and Samaria is just like any other situation of conquest - may be wrong."

This benighted "paper" is an example of the Western intellectuals' over-riding and corrosive self-hatred. The West's most dangerous enemies are within our walls, already.

As of Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2007, at least 405 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department.

The department last updated its figures Dec. 15, 2007, at 10 a.m. EST.

Of those, the military reports 274 were killed by hostile action.

Outside the Afghan region, the Defense Department reports 63 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, two were the result of hostile action.

The military lists these other locations as

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba;

Djibouti;

Eritrea;

Ethiopia;

Jordan;

Kenya;

Kyrgyzstan;

Philippines;

Seychelles;

Sudan;

Tajikistan;

Turkey;

and Yemen.

There were also four CIA officer deaths and one military civilian death.

280 DEATHS IN DUE TO HOSTILE ACTIONS.

IN 16 COUNTRIES.

SINCE 2001.

AT THIS RATE, IT WILL TAKE NEARLY 100 YEARS FOR THE USA MILITARY TO SUFFER THE SAME NUMBER OF DEAD WE ALL SUFFERED ON 9/11.

WE HAVE AN AWESOME MILITARY.

FIGHTING ALL OVER THE WORLD.

DEFENDING US, OUR ALLIES AND ALL WHO WOULD BE FREE.

GOD BLESS THEM ALL.

[NOTE: OBVIOUSLY THIS TALLY DOESN'T INCLUDE IRAQ.][LET THIS ALSO BE A REMINDER: WE'RE NOT JUST FIGHTING IN IRAQ!]

COULD THIS BE A DRESS-REHEARSAL FOR HOW THE WEST WILL DEAL WITH ISRAEL AND FATAH AND THE SO-CALLED WEST BANK? WILL THE EU AND PRESIDENT OBAMA/HILLARY UNTIE TO FORCE ISRAEL TO CEDE THE WEST BANK TO FATAH?

IN PRINCIPLE THEY COULD DO THIS - IF THEY SUCCEED WITH KOSOVO.

THINK ABOUT WHAT THEY'RE TRYING TO DO: THEY'RE TRYING TO PRY AWAY THE SOVEREIGN LAND FROM A SOVEREIGN NATION IN ORDER TO MAKE ANOTHER ARTIFICIAL NATION-STATE FOR MUSLIMS, WHO HARDLY LACK FOR THEM... SHEESH: THEY HAVE THEM ALL OVER THE FREAKIN' DEAKIN' WORLD!

IN FACT, ETHNIC ALBANIANS (WHICH IS ALL MUSLIM KOSOVARS REALLY ARE) HAVE A COUNTRY ALREADY... ER UM... IT'S CALLED ALBANIA!

I rarely disagree with Taranto but his sensitivity to "racism" (He is Jewish) sometimes loosens his contact with reality. And he is too slippery with the facts by far in his comments on Ron Paul. He faults Ron Paul for pointing out what I and many others have pointed out: That America was the only country that needed a civil war to free the slaves -- leading to the view that the real motive was not to free the slaves but rather as Lincoln himself often said: To "preserve the union" -- in other words to centralize power in the Federal government and allow no dissent from it. The slaves were merely a pretext.

Taranto puts forward a very stretched interpretation of Ron Paul's words by saying that Paul favours official desegregation only at "a federal lunch counter" and not in the armed forces etc. He realizes however that such an interpretation is not sustainable and endeavours to bolster his position by saying that "Paul blames Lincoln for the Civil War rather than blaming the South for starting a war to preserve slavery".

But the accusation that the South started the war, although technically correct, is disingenuous. The South attacked Fort Sumpter only because it was already under heavy threat and needed to consolidate its position against the more numerous Northerners if it was to have any chance of defending itself. On Taranto's argument, Israel's six-day war was also wrong because it was Israel that fired first when it was heavily threatened by Egypt.

Reliapundit: I rarely disagree with John Ray, I have a very serious disagreement with the substance of this post regarding its reading of the US Civil War. I think it is way off. I could NOT care less what Paul thinks of anything or what Taranto thinks of Paul, but when it comes to the US Civil War I care very VERY much. I put my views in the comments section if you're interested....

I give a lot of money away but I almost always give it direct to the intended beneficiary. The story below is one of many which shows why. Even though I am a former registered dog breeder, I do NOT intend to remember the local dog's home (RSPCA) in my will for fear that the money could fall into the hands of "animal lib" fanatics.

I used to donate to World Vision until they came out with one-sided criticisms of Israel. I tried to donate to World Vision on condition that the money go to a needy Jewish child in Israel but they would not take my money under such conditions. Because of her huge military burdens, Israel is still in many ways a poor country so there are many needy Jewish families there. I am afraid that ALL the well-known "aid" organizations must be regarded as very dubious conduits for actual aid. There are however Jewish charities which aim to help poor Israeli families and my negative remarks must not be taken as applying to them.

THREE years after Australians donated $400 million to rebuild Asian lives devastated by the 2004 tsunami, aid groups are under attack for spending much of the money on social and political engineering. A survey by The Australian of the contributions by non-government organisations to the relief effort found the donations had been spent on politically correct projects promoting left-wing Western values over traditional Asian culture.

The activities - listed as tsunami relief - include a "travelling Oxfam gender justice show" in Indonesia to change rural male attitudes towards women. Another Oxfam project, reminiscent of the ACTU's Your Rights at Work campaign, instructs Thai workers in Australian-style industrial activism and encourages them to set up trade unions.

A World Vision tsunami relief project in the Indonesian province of Aceh includes a lobbying campaign to advance land reform to promote gender equity, as well as educating women in "democratic processes" and encouraging them to enter politics. Also in Aceh, the Catholic aid group Caritas funds an Islamic learning centre to promote "the importance of the Koran". This is seen as recognition of the importance of Islam in a province that has been the scene of a long-running and bloody independence struggle against the secular central Government....

President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan signaled an improvement in relations between their countries after an unusually cordial meeting here on Wednesday and called for greater cooperation in fighting terrorism.

Mr. Karzai was on a two-day visit here in the Pakistani capital, where he would also meet with the opposition politician Benazir Bhutto, a statement from the Afghan president’s office said. Ms. Bhutto is taking part in parliamentary elections scheduled for January.

The two presidents have regularly leveled harsh accusations at each other over the last two years since a Taliban resurgence shook the Afghan government’s control of much of southern Afghanistan. Mr. Karzai has blamed Pakistan for harboring the Taliban and militant training camps, which he says have allowed the insurgents to stage a comeback, while Mr. Musharraf has blamed lawlessness in Afghanistan and Mr. Karzai’s failure to govern for the creeping insurgency.

But the two men emerged Wednesday from their discussions closer to agreement on how to deal with the militants, who over the last year have extended their reach inside Pakistan.

Mr. Musharraf said their talks focused on the need for cooperation on intelligence to meet “this menace of extremism and terrorism, which is destroying both our countries.”

“I think we have developed very strong understanding of each other’s problems and we look forward to cooperation and coordination in all fields for our mutual benefit,” Mr. Musharraf said during a news briefing, which was broadcast live by Pakistan’s state-run television.

“The meeting was productive in all aspects,” Mr. Karzai said.

THIS MEETING - (BETWEEN TWO MUSLIMS) - COMES RIGHT IN THE HEELS OF MAJOR TRIPS TO KABUL BY PM BROWN, PRESIDENT SARKOZY, PM RUDD, AND PM PRODI.

LONG LAO GAO, Laos — The pineapple that grows on the steep hills above the Mekong River is especially sweet, the red and orange chilies unusually spicy, and the spring onions and watercress retain the freshness of the mountain dew.

For years, getting this prized produce to market meant that someone had to carry a giant basket on a back-breaking, daylong trek down narrow mountain trails cutting through the jungle.

That is now changing, thanks in large part to China.Villagers ride their cheap Chinese motorcycles, which sell for as little as $440, down a rutted dirt road to the markets of Luang Prabang, a charming city of Buddhist temples along the Mekong that draws flocks of foreign tourists. The trip takes one and half hours.

“No one had a motorcycle before,” said Khamphao Janphasid, 43, a teacher in the local school whose extended family now has three of them. “The only motorcycles that used to be available were Japanese and poor people couldn’t afford them.”

The products are transforming the lives of some of the poorest people in Asia, whose worldly possessions a few years ago typically consisted of not much more than a set or two of clothes, cooking utensils and a thatch-roofed house built by hand.

The concerns in the West about the safety of Chinese toys and pet food are largely moot for the people living in the remote villages here.

As the first introduction to global capitalism, Chinese products are met with deep appreciation.“Life is better because prices are cheaper,” Mr. Khamphao said.

Chinese television sets and satellite dishes connect villagers to the world, stereos fill their houses with music and the Chinese motor scooters often serve as transport for entire families.

The motor scooters, which typically have small but adequate 110cc engines, literally save lives, says Saidoa Wu, the 43-year-old village headman of Long Lao Mai, a village nestled in a valley at the end of the dirt road, adjacent to Long Lao Gao.

“Now when we have a sick person we can get to the hospital in time,” Mr. Wu said.

Improvised bamboo stretchers that villagers here used as recently as a decade ago to carry the gravely ill on foot are history. In a village of 150 families, Mr. Wu counts a total of 44 Chinese motorcycles; there were none five years ago.

THE POSTMODERN LEFT IS - I AM SURE - OPPOSED TO THIS CONSUMERISM. ESPECIALLY THE MOPED WHICH BURN FOSSIL FUELS.

THEY'D MUCH RATHER THE POOR FOLKS STAY POOR AND CARBON NEUTRAL

AFTER ALL, THE EARTH IS IN THE BALANCE!

ON THE OTHER HAND, I SEE THESE DEVELOPMENT IN LAOS AS PROGRESS.

AND I'D LIKE TO SEE IT EXPANDED INTO AFRICA - WHICH NEEDS FACTORIES, SWEAT SHOPS, POWER PLANTS AND HIGHWAYS AND TRUCKS, IN ADDITION TO MOPEDS.

IT'S SIMPLE REALLY: THE ROAD TO A BETTER LIFE BEGINS WITH CAPITALISM AND FREE ENTERPRISE AND NECESSARILY INCLUDES CONSUMERISM AND INDUSTRIALIZATION.

By the time she had realised her mistake - that as one of Germany’s top communists she should probably not be seen eating lobster - it was too late. There was no time to switch from the £16 “rich man’s dish” to a more modest platter of kippers, because Sahra Wagenknecht had already been caught on camera in the act of betraying her own political ideals.Comrade Wagenknecht’s response?

She directed an assistant to secure the camera, then erased the shameful lobster images.

Actually, lobster the perfect symbol for today's postmodern left: it's red on outside and white inside, it's filled with gooey green stuff, and has big claws (the to better take away your stuff!).

ALSO: It takes a nutcracker to open one up, and they taste best boiled alive and eaten with melted butter. (OKAY I'M GETTING CARRIED AWAY!)

Families of Israel Defense Forces soldiers slain during the Second Lebanon War said on Monday that if Prime Minister Ehud Olmert does not step down of his own initiative following publication of the Winograd Committee's final report into the handling of the war, they would force him to do so.

Olmert said Wednesday that he had no intention of stepping down from his position after the Winograd Committee of inquiry into the Second Lebanon War publishes its final report.

The report, expected to be released by the end of the year, will not include any personal conclusions or recommendations against any individuals.Moshe Muskal, head of the Forum for Bereaved Families, said in response to the prime minister's remarks, "if Prime Minister Ehud Olmert does not resign from his position after the Winograd report, we, the bereaved families, will make him do so. We will open a campaign to bring about his resignation and bring the nation to the polls."

Russia has agreed to sell an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to Iran, Iran's defense minister was quoted as saying on Wednesday in the Iranian Fars News Agency.

S-300 missiles are longer-ranging than the TOR-M1 surface-to-air missiles which Russia, in a deal criticized by the West, earlier this year said it had delivered to the Islamic Republic under a $1 billion contract.

Iran is under United Nations sanctions due to its refusal to halt sensitive atomic work that Western powers suspect it wants to master so that it can build nuclear bombs, but they do not ban conventional weapons sales to the country.

LEMME GET THIS STRAIGHT:

THE IRANIANS BOUGHT A NUCLEAR POWER PLANT FROM THE FOLKS WHO BROUGHT US CHERNOBYL.

AND MORE ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSILES FROM THE FOLKS WHO SOLD ASSAD HIS POROUS DEFENSE SYSTEMS (JUST RENDERED USELESS BY THE IAF).

EITHER PUTIN IS A GREAT SALESMAN OR THE IRANIANS ARE AS DUMB AS SHIT.

PROBABLY BOTH.

SERIOUSLY: PUTIN IS GONNA BE A BIG PROBLEM FOR YEARS TO COME - AND I WANT OUR NEXT PRESIDENT TO HANDLE HIM BETTER THAN BUSH AND CONDI DID.

The man who'd bought the "Peace House" in Hevron is speaking out and is angry that the government is acting as though it were an invasion:

(IsraelNN.com) The man who purchased the Hevron Peace House from its Arab owner lost his patience with government claims that its residents are living there illegally, and spoke out this week to confirm that the sale was conducted legally.

The buyer is a religious United States Jew of Syrian descent whose ancestors were thrown out of Hevron by the Arab pogrom of 1929. "B"'s great-grandfather and other relatives who were in Hevron at the time of the attacks managed to escape without injury, he said.

Having paid $700,000 for the building in a legitimate transaction, he expressed outrage with “Israeli democracy” that the government is relating to the Jewish presence in his building as an “invasion.”

"We have given the government videotapes and pictures proving that the building was purchased honestly," he emphasized, videotapes in which the former owner is seen receiving money, counting it, and then signing documents granting the rights to the building to the buyer.

"Firefighters at the East Baltimore station where a noose was found demanded Monday that the NAACP apologize for labeling them racist. Discovery of the noose had drawn sharp criticism from Marvin "Doc" Cheatham, the Baltimore NAACP president, before a black firefighter from the station admitted that he had placed the noose there.

"The firefighters that work on his shift want Doc Cheatham to be man enough to stand up and apologize for his outrageous statements," said Bob Sledgeski, a city firefighter union official. "They're furious they were accused of being racists when it was not true."

The union, Sledgeski said, is considering filing a defamation lawsuit against the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Vulcan Blazers, a black firefighters group that said the noose symbolized racism in the department.

Henry Burris, president of the Vulcan Blazers, condemned the incident but said no apology was necessary. "I do not condone it," he said. "However, I do not apologize for the information I got concerning the noose, and, as I said when I found out about the noose, it was just a symptom of racism in the fire department."

"When Hillary Clinton's volunteers and staffers stand at the back of their candidate's events, they sometimes play a game one observer called "count the oxygen tanks and wheelchairs." Barack Obama's Iowa troops have their own rituals in the days leading up to the crucial Jan. 3 caucus - one of them is making sure that the high school kids who swarm Obama's appearances turn 18 in time to vote. If the Clinton-Obama confrontation figured to be a clash of gender and racial pathfinders, it has turned out in large measure to be a generational battle. Obama is gunning for 80 percent of the under-21 vote, his advisers say, while Clinton is banking on a bedrock of middle-age and elderly voters who make up the majority of caucus-goers."

The news just keeps getting better and better for Islamic and Leftist terrorists.

According to this article in the December 25, 2007 edition of the Turkish Daily News,

Some 2.5 percent of the Islamic terrorist organizations' members [in groups such as Hezbollah, Caliphate State, The Islamic Great Eastern Front Raiders, the Army of Jerusalem, and the Turkish structuring of the al-Qaeda] are children aged 10-14, according to a similar study carried out by the police department on the files of Islamic terror organizations members.

Young people aged 15-25 constitute the majority of those groups' members with a percentage of higher than 70. The illiterate group members constitute 1.5 percent. The majority of members are high school graduates according to the research with a percentage of 40.5, while 22.5 percent of them are university graduates.

And not only are Islamic terrorists actively recruiting from the growing pool of young Muslims. According to the article,

The leftist organizations have young militants as well, that 65 percent of them are between the ages 14 and 25.

The leftist organizations include the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front, the Maoist Communist Party, the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist Conference, and the Marxist Leninist Communist Party.

What to do about these alarming developments? According to the article,

Terrorist organizations and Satanist groups meet with young people at a very critical age during which they search for respect and appreciation, terrorism experts said. Parents should not judge their children unnecessarily, avoid needless criticisms and treat them as adults, experts said.

While there is an international embargo on supplying the Islamic Republic with processor chips of the type required to build such a device, the Iranians have managed to get their hands on super-strength CPUs manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD... from a middleman in one of the Arab countries in the Persian Gulf, perhaps the United Arab Emirates or Bahrain. ...

The Iranian supercomputer is expected to make the job of intelligence communities worldwide much harder ... it could retard the task of retrieving intelligence on military actions such as trajectories or targets of Iranian missiles.

Iran previously owned encrypting software sold to it by Switzerland, but the US managed to hack into the Swiss software. Consequently, the regime decided to invest in a domestic encryption program.

Two people wanted over the killing of four French tourists in Mauritania are suspected of having links to Al-Qaida's North African branch based in Algeria, prosecutors in Nouakchott said on Tuesday.

Among three suspects in Monday's fatal shooting are "two young Mauritanians who are suspected of belonging to extremist Salafist groups," prosecutors said in a statement.

The statement referred to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, the Algerian group which earlier this year declared allegiance to Al-Qaida and renamed itself Al-Qaida's Branch in the Islamic Maghreb.

Authorities in Mauritania say three suspects linked to the killing of four members of a French family in the east of the country, may have fled to neighboring Senegal.

A taxi driver told police he drove the men to the town of Boghe on the Senegalese border, about 50 kilometers south of Aleg, where the attack took place.

Security officials say the French tourists were picnicking on the side of the highway outside of Aleg when a group gunmen pulled up and demanded money. The family refused and the gunmen opened fire. One man survived the attack, but lost his two children, his brother and a family friend.

THESE FRENCH TOURISTS WHO WERE THE VICTIMS OF THIS ATTACK HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH NEOCONS OR THE LIKUD OR BUSHITLERCHENEYHALLIBURTON.